I want enthusiastically to share some recipes with you but I also want to share something more; something beyond food. I’m no chef or serious foodie, but I do enjoy the kitchen. I like to bake and cook and I find healthy eating important. I also know that the condition of the heart may show forth in different areas of our lives. In different seasons, the kitchen-heart part of life can become just a task, tasteless and tried; unnoticed or unappreciated…meager.

You may have heard expressions like, “A pinch of love makes everything taste better.” Or “The way to a man’s heart is through his stomach.” And, “Cooking is love made visible,” among other food-related quotes. Many can agree that the kitchen is a heart-place. So too, a dinner table and whether we cook for one or two or many more mouths there is something telling about the culture of the kitchen that has nothing to do with actual food.

Almost a decade ago I sat on a living room floor, in a circle of people, in another country and reached into a pot the size of a large toddler. I pulled out a leafed, bud-like vegetable and followed the example of the other people in the circle on how to eat it. The tops of the fruit were prickly, but I pulled off the outer leaves one at a time and my front teeth slid down the side of the petal until they struck into the soft meat found at the bottom. I pulled off another petal and did the same, each petal bringing me closer and closer to the center and each one offering a bit more meat and satisfaction. Artichokes require some effort to eat, especially if you want to get to the best part, the heart. While you can eat the stem and most of the leaves, the meaty core or heart of this strange and wild weed is reinforced by a fuzzy layer of hair called the choke. If eaten, it will cause a, well, choking hazard and must be scooped out of the actual heart with a spoon.

Artichokes are weeds or more accurately, thistles. If the choke of the artichoke is not taken out, the heart can’t be exposed and eaten. If the choke of the heart is allowed to keep growing, it will flower and produce more weeds.

As a child, I spent hours digging American thistles out of a midwestern pasture to earn summer spending money. Little did I know that God was giving me a child’s vantage point of a greater truth: Unforgiveness is a choke. It needs to be taken out. It has to free up the heart. There is a reward in so-doing but it will take intention and effort.

…Keep a sharp eye out for weeds of bitter discontent. A thistle or two gone to seed can ruin a whole garden in no time.

Hebrews 12:15 (MSG)

Fast forward 15 years and to another pot of life. My cooking was so routine, so lack-luster and well, so gross.
My kids finally asked, “What’s wrong? Your food is terrible!”

I was offended, “Who do you think slaves over your food?
Would YOU like to feed yourselves?”
Yes, I felt like a slave.
No, my life was not what I wanted it to be.
The pot was becoming bitter and the thistles were flowering.

I became acutely aware of my children’s reactions to the cooking of other moms. Silently and hungrily they would chow down on the simplest of meals: taco night and PB&J with milk and other budget-friendly meals. Happily they ate up these easy-fixings. Each meal, however, had a common pinch of grace, some happiness and contentment mixed in. The kitchen culture was more than just food.

Forgiveness as a culinary culture.

Eventually I caved, but not to love, happiness or forgiveness (grace). I found myself calling for take out sometimes several times per week which created it’s own additional expenses and expectations.

You would think that opening a cook book or joining an online culinary group for women planning weekly meals would have solved my problem. But I was choking. I was angry. I hated my life. I was walking spent and exhausted and not even the thought of cooking up my favorite meal was able to to solve it. I couldn’t escape the culinary catastrophe. The heart in the kitchen was under attack and I had the heat turned all the way up.

I couldn’t escape the culinary catastrophe.

 

Three ingredients of equal parts important are needed in the kitchen.
Three ingredients guaranteed to make things go from gross to good.

• 1 Part Forgiveness. (grace)
• 1 Part Love.
• 1 Part Rest

There is a truth in the book of Psalms in the Bible that reads,
“Taste and see that the Lord is good.”

We can stir and blend it, sift and knead it, dice it or chop it; fry it up or bake it slow. None of this matters if we are walking with bitter disappointment, regret and continue to fertilize the weeds of unforgiveness. We can become reduced and burned to a crisp like forgotten toast when we don’t intentionally deal with what is in our hearts. We can choke on the choke. I’m not saying we even know what we’ve been cooking up in the kitchen, but God does. He knows the condition of our hearts. He knows the choke that needs to be scooped out, or the flowering bud that needs to be chopped off. His forgiveness, love and rest are available to us but we must take time out to intentionally go to the Lord and receive the quiet and rest He would pour into us. His goodness is something we can taste. His goodness is something we can see (if we want to). His aroma is sweet and savory, not like the culture of charred smoke and angry fire alarms our own efforts produce.

We don’t have to be great cooks. We don’t need elaborate culinary accomplishments. We just need forgiveness (His), love (His) and rest (His). He too has a table and he has prepared a goodly fare for us to take a moment, dine-in and rest awhile. The artichokes set before us are made for His children to pull apart, scoop out the choke and taste the nourishing center.

Forgiveness changes the culture in our hearts and that always changes the culture in the kitchen.

Biblical Original Text

See – Strongs H7200 – Ra’ah (raw-ah) meaning to consider, have a vision, give attention to, experience and even be shown.

Taste – Strongs H2938 – Ta’am (taw-am) meaning to try the flavor, to eat a little, to perceive by the taste or flavor.

Goodness – Strongs H2896 – Towb (tove) meaning to prosper, benefit, to have favor, pleasantness, one who is good, gracious and kind

Suggested Resources:

Redemptive Living for Women

https://rlforwomen.com/the-artichoke-analogy-part-1/